Saint Tammany and the origin of the Society of Tammany or Columbian order in the city of New York

Front matter

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K 2, SIR

Preface

The following treatise is the result of a study undertaken under the direction of the School of Political Science, Columbia University. Its original purpose was the preparation of a monograph on the political significance of Tammany Hall. A brief investigation, however, of the published works on the subject revealed the fact that no authentic exhaustive work had been written or even attempted, including the whole or any considerable part of the field. It became apparent that the subject invited a complete investigation to reveal the true scope of the movement of the early Tammany Societies, the legendary of Saint Tammany, and the origin and development of the Society of Tammany in the City of New York, as the basis for the' proper understanding of the growth and influence of the institution and the evolution of the Democratic " machine " in New York County. Such a work has been undertaken and the following chapters are the beginnings of the complete history that is planned.

In the search for original sources of information, the writer found himself in a maze of pertinent and interesting but wholly uncollated data, revealing the necessity for a comprehensive bibliography as a guide to the inquiry. During its preparation the miscellaneous information which is presented in the form of an appendix to this dissertation was secured. The appendix includes a list of orations delivered before Tammany Societies in the United States, with contemporary criticisms wherever found; and it may not be amiss to add that the orations reflect the attitude of the societies upon the social, political and economic problems

4 PREFACE

and conditions of their times — an indispensable source of information to the investigator of the movement.

The facts and traditions concerning Saint Tammany, which are here collected for the first time, possess more than an antiquarian interest, for they disclose the character of the fetich to which the movement of the Tammany Societies was dedicated. No pains, therefore, have been spared in presenting the topic.

The amount of information uncovered respecting the several epochs of the history of the Tammany Society of New York City varies greatly. From 1789 to 1800, the important activities are adequately chronicled in contemporary newspapers, and much documentary information is accessible. During the period from 1800 to 1812 the major functions are briefly treated in the news columns, but the sources are not so abundant as in the preceding decade. A mere outline of the workings of the Society from 1812 to 1825 is provided by the press, and an occasional broadside or pamphlet issued by the Society, or published by its political opponents, furnishes additional sidelights on the activities of the period. There is a paucity of information covering the period between 1825 and 1850, broken only by an occasional pamphlet and the passing comment of general works. The daily newspapers of New York City, numerous magazines and periodicals, together with official publications by the Society in the form of broadsides, pamphlets, communications and accounts of its proceedings, furnish abundant material for its history during the latter half of the nineteenth century.

In discussing the development of the early Tammany Societies, the article by Francis Von Cabeen, on The Society of the Sons of Saint Tammany of Philadelphia, published in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography in 1902, was of great assistance. The references

PREFACE 5

pointed out by Mr. Cabeen were of especial value in describing the part played in the movement by the Philadelphia Society.

The author takes pleasure in acknowledging the assistance rendered to him by Mr. Albert Matthews, lexicographer and historical investigator, of Boston, Massachusetts, by furnishing references to invaluable sources. The splendid facilities of the New York Historical Society, New York Public, New York Society, American Antiquarian, Brown University, and Columbia University Libraries, and the Library of Congress, made accessible vast storehouses of information, and the courtesy of their respective librarians is gratefully remembered. Professor Charles A. Beard, of Columbia University, under whose personal supervision this study was commenced, has been unstinting in his suggestions and encouragement. To Professor E. M. Sait, of Columbia University, the writer is indebted for helpful, scholarly criticism. Mr. William A. Hildebrand, formerly assistant librarian at the New York Historical Society, has materially aided in verifying references. The author is especially grateful to Dr. Austin Baxter Keep, of the College of the City of New York, who has read manuscript and proof throughout and whose experience in historical investigation has provided a never failing source of assistance and sympathetic interest. Louis E. Swarts, Esq., of the New York Bar, has aided in the revision and arrangement of the work in the same cordial spirit of cooperation that has characterized his professional relations with the writer during the past seven years.

E. P. K.

Columbia University, New York, May 1, 1913.

Contents

PAG1

Introduction 11

CHAPTER I Saint Tammany

1. Tamenend: Hiawatha and Tammany in history and literature;

authentic history of Tammany — land grants to William Penn; relations with the early settlers 15

2. Traditions of Saint Tammany: Residence, death, place of burial;

successors; Motto; Tammany and the Walam Olum 21

3. Canonization: Correspondence of Dr. Belknap and Hazard; ex-

planations of the anomaly; errors of early commentators; John Leacock and his poem on Saint Tammany; Chief Tammany, patron of a Fishing Club; patron of the Province of Pennsylvania and of the Continental Army; poems to Saint Tammany 29

4. Sources of Legendary: Oration by Mitchill and reports of early

missionaries; comments by Heckewelder; Mitchill's letter; errors of Heckewelder; influence of the Iroquois; legends of

Tammany confused with those of Hiawatha 46

Notes to Chapter I. The Delaware Indians; the Iroquois; Tammany as a proper name; Col. Morgan and the name Tamanend; Teedyuscung; Poem — " Song for St. Tammany's Day"; The Prophet; Iroquois traditions relating to Tammany 53

CHAPTER II The Movement of the Tammany Societies in the United States

Prior to 1789

Celebration of May 1st as St. Tammany's Day; custom inaugurated by Fishing Clubs near Philadelphia; early celebrations; Sons of King Tammany at Philadelphia — toasts; activities at Philadelphia — toasts; officers; the movement outside of Philadelphia: celebrations at Norfolk, Harrisburg, Petersburg and Richmond, Va. — toasts; in New Jersey — constitution; in Georgia — celebrations at Savannah — toasts; in the Carolinas — celebration at Wilmington, N. C. — toasts; character of the celebrations in the

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PAGE

South; the Tammany Societies and the Sons of Liberty; Celtic influence on the movement in the South; end of the first phase

of the movement 84

Notes to Chapter II. Poem — "Prophecy of King Tammany"; Law of Liberty of the Tammany Societies; Sons of Liberty and the Liberty Pole; St. Tammany's Day unknown in New England. . Ill

Chapter III

The Origin of the Society of Tammany or Columbian Order in the City of New York

1. The Founding: Statement by Bryce; conditions in New York from

1783-1789; notices of the Society; early celebrations — toasts; meetings in 1789 — reorganization — Public Constitution 117

2. Objects: William Mooney's activities; John Pintard and his in-

fluence on the Society — correspondence; The Society and the Cincinnati; the anti-Catholic sentiment; patrons; the Bucktail;

evolution of the present name 130 -

Notes to Chapter III. Pintard; the Tammanial laws; William Mooney; the Oneida Indians; William Maclay; toasts of the Tammany Society and the Cincinnati; anti-Catholic sentiment in the Philadelphia and Washington Tammany Societies; toasts to the patrons 150

CHAPTER IV Early Activities of the Society

1. Reception to the Indians: The Oneida Chiefs; conciliation of the

Creeks; the Ottoway Chiefs 167

2. The Tammany Museum: Establishment; room in City Hall; by-

laws and regulations; Broadside June 1, 1791; transfer to Baker; later history 173

3. Promotion of Holidays: May 12 — ostentatious pageantry, banquets;

July 4th celebrations — reading the Declaration of Independence; abandonment of Indian ceremonial; Evacuation Day; celebrations in honor of Columbus 177

4. Patriotic zeal and civic interest: Mourning; work on the harbor

fortifications — Governor's Island and Brooklyn 186

5. The Wigwam: Various locations; Tammanial Tontine Associa-

tion; first Tammany Hall; present hall 189

6. The drift toward politics: Sympathy for the French Revolution —

celebrations; the Tammany Society and the Democratic Society; Mrs. Hatton and the opera "Tammany"; Washington's attack on self-created societies; the split in the Tammany Society; alignment with the Anti-Federalists 192

CONTENTS 9

PAGE

Notes to Chapter IV. Col. M'Gillivray; Georgia and the Creek treaty; criticisms of the early anniversaries; the Columbus Monument; address by the Society; excerpt from Washington's message 199

Appendix

Tammany Societies in the United States 209

Orations before New York Tammany Society, with criticisms 214

Orations before the Tammany Societies in the United States 241

ABBREVIATIONS USED

B. U. — Brown University Library.

L. C. — Library of Congress.

N. p., n. d. — No place or date of publication. N. Y. H. S— New York Historical Society. N. Y. P. L.— New York Public Library. * — Indicates earliest date found, f — Indicates that the oration has not been found.

Figures 2/1 — Indicate page and column of newspapers as, the Diary May 19, 2/1, 1794, means May 19, page two, firBt column.

Introduction

The Tammany Societies in the United States exercised a powerful influence in shaping the destinies and in crystallizing the principles of our government, and have contributed much to the development of our present extra-constitutional system of party government. The importance of this influence has been inadequately recognized by students of American history. The societies bore the standards of equal rights and popular rule like the powerful Jacobin clubs of the French Revolution, and were the rallying points of Republican activity until the complete annihilation of the Federalist party. Under the favoring leadership of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison the movement flourished, and in its organized activities foreshadowed the establishment of national political machines. With the passing of the Federalists the issues which had stimulated the movement disappeared, and one by one the societies succumbed to the lethargy resulting from the cessation of violent partisan controversy. The New York Tammany Society alone remained, presenting the most curious phenomenon in the history of American politics in its development from a patriotic and fraternal institution to an organized force or machine in party politics; in which position, for threequarters of a century, it dominated the public life of the American metropolis.

Originally a society of purely social and patriotic motives, the organization was transformed into an agency for the assertion and maintenance of Republican principles; and, under the corrupting influence of partisan greed, degenerated at times into an oppressive vehicle for the acquisition

12 INTRODUCTION

of political spoils. Following the disclosures of the iniquitous Tweed Ring in 1871, the Society slowly relinquished its hold upon the party machinery, and the evolution of state election laws regulating party control completed the separation. Thus by a singular metamorphosis, the Society, which for so many years had been absolute dictator of Democratic politics in New York City, the arbiter of party regularity, and the distributor of public patronage, was wholly divorced from its partisan control and partially rehabilitated in its original character as a fraternal and patriotic body.

The building known as Tammany Hall is owned and controlled by the Society of Tammany or Columbian Order in the City of New York. The term " Tammany Hall," however, in popular significance is used to designate the dominant faction of the Democratic party of the County of New York. This designation arises from the fact that the assembly room of the Society, ever since the construction of the first Tammany Hall in 1811, has been the meeting place of the controlling committees of the Democratic party. In a similar manner the dominant faction of the local Democracy prior to 1811 acquired the names of" Martling party " and " Tammanial party," because it met in the Society's wigwam at Martling's Long Room; and, in the struggle with De Witt Clinton for supremacy within the party, the faction led by the Society was called " Bucktails," after the well-known Tammanial emblem.

The political organization known as " Tammany Hall " and the Society of Tammany or Columbian Order in the City of New York are, therefore, separate and distinct entities, — the former a body created by statute, a legalized functionary of party government; the latter the shell of an ancient and honorable patriotic organization. The Society and the " Machine," however, so far interlock that it is

INTRODUCTION 13

customary for leaders of the party to be officers of the Society. Thus the Society is to-day dominated by the political institution which it created and long controlled.

The Society no longer occupies a position of leadership in the celebration of public holidays, so many of which it originated, and to the establishment of which it contributed so prominent a part. The modern Tammany Society, divested of the political machinations which deprived it of its estimable non-partisan character, is entitled by virtue of its ancient traditions and historic public service to become again a leader in the patriotic ceremonial of the City of New York. For this office its membership and plan of organization render it peculiarly fit, and it is the hope of its votaries that this function may again be delegated to the Society.

The Tammany Society has survived over a century and a quarter of storm and stress, during which it has exerted a portentous influence upon the life of the American Commonwealth. Its principles have been deprecated and its motives assailed on the one hand, and, on the other, its glories celebrated and its virtues enlarged by interested partisans. With the prejudice born of opposition, detractors have arisen without its ranks, while its eulogists have taken inspiration from their own devotion to the Order. Unhappily, those whose dispassionate estimation has been furnished to us, with spectatorial indifference, have failed to fathom its anomalies or to search out the hidden funds of information from which alone could accuracy arise. The subject is worthy of a better fate. The history of no other isolated institution is so fraught with epoch-making precedent, nor presents a more useful illustration of the working out of our republican forms, — revealing at once the spreading ulcers of corruption and the healthy growth of the sinews of true democracy.

14 INTRODUCTION

The Order has participated in numberless movements of social, political and civic import; every epoch, every year, has seen its affirmative acts; and its position has been writ large in infinite bitter controversy. That the record of its achievements and of its activities, both social and pernicious, should form the basis for an impartial judgment of its worth, is the postulate from which a compendious history of the Society should proceed. A study of its forerunners, the ideals to which it aspired, the causes and scope of its organization, together with a description of the early activities of the Society, are the purposes of the present work.